{"id":348,"date":"2024-06-14T10:35:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T09:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/?p=348"},"modified":"2024-06-14T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T09:35:06","slug":"postgraduate-student-interviews-isabel-buckley-mres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/2024\/06\/14\/postgraduate-student-interviews-isabel-buckley-mres\/","title":{"rendered":"Postgraduate student interviews: Isabel Buckley (MRes)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post is part of our <\/strong>Research Initiation Scheme<\/strong><\/a> for 2023-2024<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Isabel Buckley, personal archive<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What has your university journey been like so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my A-level studies I au-paired in Spain and I really enjoyed using the language there. I did History and Spanish for my undergraduate degree [at Queen\u2019s] because I didn\u2019t want to lose my Spanish and I found the Spanish side more interesting for me and that\u2019s how I have come to do an MRes [Master of Research] now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, tell me about your current research project: \u2018Genre and gender in female authored narco-novelas\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks at female narco-novelas which are women-authored books about drug trafficking. I\u2019m looking at Perra Brava<\/em> by Orfa Alarc\u00f3n, who is a Mexican author, El Leopardo al Sol<\/em> by Laura Restrepo, who is a Colombian author, and Pistoleros<\/em> by Paula Castiglioni, who is an Argentinian author. So, my scope is across Latin America. From what I have seen, most of the productions on drug trafficking, like TV series, focus on male figures so I thought it would be interesting to look at a female-narrated point of view and the portrayal of women and see how that is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did your interest in this topic come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed Sarah Bowskill<\/a>\u2019s module on US\/Mexican border issues during second year and then in final year I did Sarah\u2019s other module, on Roberto Bola\u00f1o\u2019s 2666<\/em>, which touched on the issue of drug trafficking. I really enjoyed the further readings that were set within these two modules and believe the good grades I achieved were down to how much I enjoyed the content. Then when I heard about the MRes and how flexible it was, I decided to do that, and I also got funding which has helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Since starting your research what have you found to be the most interesting aspect of doing research?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have found the readings to be really interesting. At the moment I am doing an essay on Netflix\u2019s Griselda<\/em> and some of the readings have been written by academics within the fields of criminology and sociology and so I am able to read a variety of different disciplines and realise how they can inform a project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have you found challenging during your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reading is endless and so many ideas come out of the readings. I have struggled with narrowing those down because at the start 20,000 words [the length of the MRes dissertation] seems so intimidating, but now I know that I am not going to be able to write about everything that I want to. In the meetings with my supervisor, Sarah Bowskill, we have been discussing my corpus and there have been things cropping up in the text that I think would have been interesting but don\u2019t really fit into my working dissertation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you give to undergraduate students considering an MRes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would say go for it. I think it can seem intimidating if you have not done a dissertation at undergraduate level, which I hadn\u2019t, but I found the MRes to be structured in a way that they ease you into it. This means that I have not found it too overwhelming. Also, it is your research so you get so much freedom with it and can tailor it to your interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope to do after your masters?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to go travelling around South America after my graduation in January. I am not entirely sure what\u2019s after that. I would like to go further into research as a career and I am also considering doing a PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview by Erin Nelson, final-year undergraduate in Anthropology and Spanish<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabel’s MRes studies are supported by a Bulletin of Spanish Studies William C Atkinson Postgraduate Scholarship<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about the MRes in Arts and Humanities offered at Queen\u2019s University Belfast at <\/em>https:\/\/www.qub.ac.uk\/courses\/postgraduate-taught\/arts-humanities-mres\/#overview<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024. What has your university journey been like so far? During my A-level studies I au-paired in Spain and I really enjoyed using the language there. I did History and Spanish for my undergraduate degree [at Queen\u2019s] because I didn\u2019t want to lose my Spanish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,162],"tags":[107,18,132,164,30],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-postgraduate-student-interviews","category-research-initiation-2023-2024","tag-latin-america","tag-literature","tag-mres","tag-narco-novelas","tag-spanish"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}